I saw this documentary(based on China Study) and there is a companion book, with recipes.They seem to be against using oil. I am reading a book by nutritionist Ann Louise Gittleman who wrote Beyond Pritikin,and she is a proponent of distinguishing between good fats and bad fats instead of eliminating them.Has anyone looked at Forks Over Knives book? From what I saw glancing at the recipes, they looked very boring.We bought the Forks Over Knives DVD for dad-in-law after his cardiac stent procedure. He has not been converted.

I had the book and thought it looked pretty good, so much so that I gave it to my very unhealthy son-in-law. It even has a recipe from Isa in it! The controversy over good fats found in whole foods vs. veggie oils (which are a processed food) is not going to be settled soon. At the very least, the evidence I've seen indicates that eliminating, or greatly reducing, oils does have a dramatic impact on people who already have heart disease. But fat found in foods, like having adocado or nuts when eating salads/greens seems to be beneficial. Unless you eat as many nuts as I do!

_________________Formerly Kaleicious. I still love kale, but no more than lots of other garden greens too! Orach is currently my favorite.

The recipes are almost entirely reprinted from other cookbooks. If you have a lot of cookbooks, it's probably not worth owning. If you want to start cooking without oil, it's a good place to start without buying a lot of different cookbooks.

Reviving this thread as I've just had an e-mail to say my pre-irder of the new cookbook has been released (much earlier than expected!). I've not seen the film or read the original book, I kind of have a general idea behind the premise.

What can I say? While I want it to be for the good health reasons that I pre-ordrerd this book, basically I was sold when I read Isa was doing the dessert section. Isa's take on healthier desserts should surely be good.

_________________“Life is too important to be taken seriously.” - Oscar Wilde

I pre-ordered it from Amazon. It's "shipping soon." I'll let you guys know what I think once I get it. I'm just hoping that unlike the companion book they're actually new recipes, and not just recipes from different cookbooks. Some of the recipes being Isa's are why I needed to get it too!

I just want Isa's healthy(er) dessert section! From what I understand there was a book that came out a while ago that gave the low-down and had a few recipes, but the latest one is actually a recipe book.

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear

I just glanced through some of the recipes and saw one smoothie one that called for 6 medjool dates. The smoothie made ONE serving! I would go into a sugar coma with all those dates! The only medjool dates I ever saw are about the size of golf balls, a package of 12 costing around $7. Do they come in smaller sizes, too?

My first thought was what does this person eat? Are they on the Showgirls diet of brown rice and steamed vegies? :)

I was excited by the contents list, it sounds like it's got some good stuff in it. And of course Isa's dessert section! I'm quite excited for my copy to get here now, I bought it for Isa's contribution but the rest is tempting.

_________________“Life is too important to be taken seriously.” - Oscar Wilde

All of the one-star reviews for Forks Over Knives over there are making me just roll my eyes.

I got my copy in the mail today, and from what I've been able to look at so far, it looks awesome. And I don't get the no whole foods and hard-to-find ingredient reviews. The most processed food I've seen called for is canned tomatoes or beans, (which can both be made fresh,) and the hardest to find ingredient I've seen is probably seaweed, but most recipes rely on stuff almost any half-decent grocery store would have.

I just feel kind of bad for the reviewer who thinks that cardamom pods are 'too exotic'. She's missing out!

Anyway, I tested stuff for the desserts chapter and there are some winners in there. I'm not really a health-conscious cook at all, but the zucchini bread in there is awesome and has been remade a few times in my kitchen (and now that I'm thinking about it, I think I'll make it again on the weekend). The chocolate chip cookies, granola bars and both brownies are really great too.

As always, I wish there were more pictures. With that said, the recipes look easy and delicious. Also, I like that the authors of the recipes (if not credited on the front of the book) are credited at the top of the recipe. Most of these recipes look like 45 minutes or less, which is awesome.

yeah i don't know what those whiny reviews are about. i guess it's a bummer to not have pictures of every recipe but i own enough cookbooks to understand that's not always going to happen and also that it will cost a lot more for a cookbook of that magnitude to include 300 pictures. all the recipes sound great to me, especially since i'm not a huge fan of faux meats and my relationship with tofu is relatively tepid. the only thing i'll be doing differently is sauteing things with a little bit of oil. I've personally had more success with using oil in both making sure the stuff sauteed and didn't burn and also making it taste better.

So far I've only made Isa's peanut butter granola bars (very good and my bf likes them because they are not too sweet) but I'm liking the look of lots of the recipes. I really love bean and grain salads and just bean-centric meals in general so I'm hoping it will be good inspiration to eat more of them. I think a lot of the stuff looks tasty, good for everyday lunches and dinners I think. Some good brekkie ideas too. I'm getting better at throwing things together and coming up with my own recipes, although I still tend to turn to cookbooks for inspiration or when I just can't be bothered thinking.

I work at a library processing centre. (heee so dangerous!) and I've seen this book. It is really good. It's not something (even in weight loss mode that I'm in) that I'd personally want to get. Not really leapt to me and said: MAKE ME! BUY ME! (My rule of thumb is that I have to like at least #x2 of recipe by the $ of the book - so if the book costs 15.99 on Amazon, I'd have to like at minimum 30 recipes to justify getting it. (which is still 1.00 per recipe, but still. it's my logic :p)

Isa's recipes though looked really yummy.There were a few that I would probably make by taking it out via the library.

I had no intention whatsoever of ordering this but I'm now tempted to do it just spite those reviewers. If I can possibly find the time in between putting saffron in boiling water, that is.

Yes, that was an odd one. The other one that got me was the person complaining about lack of pictures and saying they needed a picture to see how the instruction "toss the sauce with the cooked pasta and garnish with the peanuts" should look. I couldn't work out if they were being sarcastic?

_________________"I go to the people with dirty onions and scrawny broccoli." - allularpunk

I watched and enjoyed the documentary - frankly because it's such a vast improvement over what most Americans currently eat! The concepts are sound. Eat a whole-foods (unrefined, unprocessed) plant-based (meaning plants only, not merely "mostly" plants) diet. That's as valid as you can get for dietary recommendations. But, they certainly do shy away from the "v" word. The only focus is health. They don't want to associate themselves with us kooks who desire to live compassionate, gentle lives. Heavens forbid. And they do call vegans on their shiitake - like eating a lot of vegan junk food - which I can certainly understand. Junk food is junk food after all.

But, the cookbook, I must say, doesn't work for me at all. I haven't found one yet that does. I have celiac disease, and therefore must avoid gluten. I also avoid casein, soy, corn, peanuts due to food sensitivities. And I avoid anything genetically modified just on the general principle of the issue. So, by the time I make all the substitutions that I must to create a recipe, it doesn't resemble the originally intended food at all! :D

I still use the basics taught in the film. I do eat a whole foods, plants only diet. I just avoid the items on my list. And, I am the healthiest "sick" person I know. Oh, and I kept my mercy and compassion. So, there is that. LOL!

A lot of plant-based people shy away from the word 'vegan', because they don't identify as vegans for various reasons, like they do eat animal products occasionally or use non-vegan non-food items. Or they think vegans are crassholes.

That's a rough list of food intolerances you have to deal with!

_________________"The Tree is His Penis"

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear

Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:51 amPosts: 6561Location: United States of New England

i think the word vegan has a lot of stigma attached to it.it's like the word feminist.there are a lot of people who believe in the theory and cause behind it but don't want to be labeled by such a loaded word.

i know it shouldnt matter because the more people eating a vegan diet the better regardless of what they call it but i find it irritating. i feel like they are basically saying they eat plants only but dont give a crepe about animals.or like mrsbadmouth said they occasionally still go out and have a burger.....

if calling it "plant-based" gets more people to stop torturing animals then i guess that is the best thing in the end.